Investigation of coalesced droplet vertical jumping and horizontal moving on textured surface using the lattice Boltzmann method

The coalesced droplet vertical jumping and horizontal moving on conical posts textured surface are numerically studied using the three-dimensional (3D) multi-relaxation-time (MRT) pseudopotential lattice Boltzmann model. The influences of wettability gradient and roughness gradient are investigated systematically. It is found that the coalesced droplet on the flat and conical posts textured surfaces can move horizontally from superhydrophobic bend to hydrophobic bend without the roughness gradient. Moreover, the coalesced droplet is able to spontaneously move from lower conical post density region to higher conical post density region without the wettability gradient. Specifically, the in-line array textured surface is more beneficial to the coalesced droplet horizontal moving than the staggered array at the same wettability parameter. However, the staggered array textured surface is more beneficial to the coalesced droplet vertical jumping than the in-line array. The hybrid effect of wettability gradient and roughness gradient plays critical roles in coalesced droplet vertical jumping and horizontal moving. The present work demonstrates that the dropwise condensation heat transfer can be enhanced in a self-sustained manner if the wettability and roughness of the textured surface are properly designed. It is also confirmed that the 3D MRT pseudopotential lattice Boltzmann model is of potential to simulate coalesced droplet behaviors on textured surface.